The Secret Path

  She smiled. “In your world there is a fable about a girl who walked through a mirror and ended up in a magical land. The same principle applies here. Only you walked into a tombstone and ended up in a place of black magic. But you might be surprised to know that there also exists an hourglass like this in your Spooksville. There the sand flows down and time moves forward. Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” Adam said. “And here the sand flows up and time moves backward.”

  She nodded her approval. “But for you now it will stop. Without eyes, without day and night, time moves very slowly.” She took a step toward them. “This is your last chance, Adam. Tell me where Sally is and I will let you go.”

  “Don’t you want to give me a last chance?” Watch asked.

  “Shut your mouth,” the witch said. “While you still can. In a few minutes you won’t have one to shut.”

  “You give me your word you’ll let me go?” Adam asked.

  “Of course,” she said.

  “The promise of a witch is useless,” Watch said. “They’re all liars.”

  “Are you just saying that because she isn’t giving you a last chance?” Adam asked.

  “Maybe,” Watch admitted.

  Adam considered a moment. “You won’t let me go,” he finally said. “The moment you have Sally, you’ll cut my eyes out. You may as well take them now and save us both a lot of trouble.”

  A flash of anger crossed the witch’s face. But then she smiled and reached out and touched his chin with her long fingernails.

  “It is no trouble for me to take my time with you,” she said softly. “And since you mentioned a pot of boiling water, I think I will have you take a bath before your operation. An especially hot one, one that will melt off your skin. What do you think of that?”

  Adam swallowed. “I prefer showers to baths.”

  The witch laughed and glanced at the knight. “Come, we must get everything ready for our brave boys.” She scratched Adam’s chin, drawing a drop of blood, just before she withdrew her arm and turned away. “We’ll see how brave they are when they start screaming.”

  Watch spoke up. “I don’t like baths or showers, ma’am.”

  “You have no choice in the matter,” the witch called over her shoulder as she strode away, the black knight following her. They disappeared into another room.

  Adam apologized to Watch. “Sorry about volunteering you for the boiling pot.”

  Watch shrugged. “There could be worse things.”

  “Such as?”

  Watch frowned. “I can’t think of anything worse at the moment.” He nodded to the hourglass. “That’s a fancy piece of magic there. The witch made a big deal of it. I wonder if it actually controls the movement of time in this dimension.”

  “I wondered the same thing,” Adam said.

  A minute of strained silence settled between them.

  “What are we going to do now?” Watch finally asked.

  “You don’t have any brilliant ideas?”

  “No. Do you?”

  Adam yanked at the chain that bound them. “No. It looks like this is the end.”

  Watch pulled at his chains, getting nowhere. “It does look hopeless. Sorry I talked you into taking the Secret Path. It wasn’t the best introduction to Spooksville.”

  “That’s all right. It wasn’t your fault. I wanted to go.” Adam sighed, feeling tears fill his eyes. “I would just feel a little better to know that Sally was safe.”

  A voice spoke from above and behind them.

  “Isn’t that sweet,” Sally said.

  16

  Sally was peering in through a barred window approximately twenty feet above their heads. She was dirty and tired-looking but otherwise no worse for wear.

  “Sally!” Adam cried. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m trying to rescue you guys,” she explained. “But I haven’t found a way inside this stone house.”

  “You should get out of here,” Adam said. “We’re doomed. Save yourself.”

  Watch cleared his throat. “Excuse me. I wouldn’t mind getting rescued.”

  Adam considered. “You’re right. If she can save us without getting caught, that might not be a bad idea.” He turned back to Sally. “Can’t you crawl in through those bars? They look far enough apart.”

  “Oh, I can crawl through the bars all right,” she said. “But then what am I supposed to do? Fly down to you guys?”

  Watch nodded above their heads. “There’s that chandelier there. You might be able to jump and catch hold of it.”

  “It isn’t that far from the window ledge,” Adam agreed.

  “Who do you think I am?” Sally demanded. “Tarzan? I can’t swing from a chandelier. I might get hurt.”

  “That’s true,” Watch said. “But we’re about to be boiled to death. I think the time for caution has passed.”

  “I agree,” Adam said.

  “I thought you were worried about my safety,” Sally said indignantly.

  “I am,” Adam said quickly. “I’m just—”

  “More worried about my own safety,” Watch interrupted.

  “I didn’t say that,” Adam said.

  “You were thinking it,” Watch said. He glanced at one of his watches. “If you are going to try to rescue us, you’d better do it now. The witch and her black knight will be back any second.”

  Sally squirmed through the metal bars—getting stuck only once—and crouched on the stone window ledge. She eyed the chandelier—which had candles instead of electric lights—warily. It was only six feet away, but from her perspective, it was a huge six feet.

  “What if I miss and go splat on the ground?” she asked.

  “It won’t be as painful as being boiled,” Adam said.

  “What am I supposed to do once I’m swinging from the chandelier?” she asked.

  “We’ll worry about that if you make it that far,” Watch said.

  “Somehow,” Sally said, “you guys don’t fit the hero mode.” She braced herself. “I’m going to do it. One—two—three.”

  Sally leaped. Her outstretched fingers barely reached the rim of the chandelier. The shock of added weight immediately pulled down on the rope that suspended the chandelier from the ceiling, which wasn’t such a bad thing. Like Tarzan or Jane, Sally was able to ride the sinking chandelier all the way to the floor. The candies toppled and went out, their blood-colored wax spilling everywhere. Luckily candles in the wall sconces still burned. When Sally was safely on her feet, she casually brushed herself off and walked over to them.

  “Did you know,” she said, “that this castle is surrounded by a moat filled with crocodiles and alligators?”

  “We’ll worry about them if we get that far,” Watch repeated. He gestured to their chains. “I don’t suppose you have the key to these in your pocket?”

  “Can’t say I do,” Sally said, glancing around. “Where’s the witch?”

  “Filling our bath,” Adam said. He glanced at Watch. “We have to face the fact we aren’t going to be able to break these chains. But what if we have Sally break something else?”

  “What?” they both asked.

  Adam nodded to the hourglass. “It’s her pride and joy. Most witches have a black cat, but she’s got that. Maybe it’s the source of her power. Knock it over, Sally. Break the glass and spread the dust over the floor.”

  The idea of destruction appealed to Sally right then. Or so Adam supposed as he watched her attack the hourglass as if she were a hungry lion jumping a plump zebra. The thing was not welded down. Probably the witch had never had an unchained guest who hated hourglasses. A few stiff kicks and the thing fell over. It hit the floor with tremendous force. The glass walls ruptured. The diamond dust flew across the stone floor.

  Then everything in the nightmarish realm went crazy.

  The candles on the wall sconces flickered, almost going out, which would have plunged the room into total darkness. The ground shook as if gripped by
an earthquake. The noise was incredible. The castle’s stone walls began to crack, the dust from the splintering stones showering down on them. But best of all, the iron pole around which Adam and Watch were bound cracked in two. They were able to pull their wristbands up and over the pole. Deep in a lower room, they heard the witch howl in anger.

  “We’d better get out of here quick,” Adam said, grabbing hold of Sally, his hand still somewhat tied by the handcuffs. “She sounds unhappy.”

  “That’s putting it mildly,” Watch remarked, straightening his glasses. They raced toward what they hoped was the front door. Then Adam stopped them.

  “Wait a second,” he said. “We can’t just leave the others in the dungeon.”

  “What others?” Sally demanded as the ground continued to rock. It was as if the castle were being ripped apart at the seams.

  “There’s a bunch of kids in the dungeon,” Watch explained. “They seem nice.” He added, “Except they’re missing a few parts.”

  Sally made a face. “I do hope they have plastic surgeons in this dimension.”

  “We have to get them out before the whole castle caves in,” Adam said.

  Sally and Watch looked at each other. “He’s really into this hero thing all of a sudden,” she said.

  “We should never have called him a coward,” Watch agreed.

  Adam was impatient. “I’m going back for them.”

  Sally didn’t protest. “We may as well. All we have waiting for us outside this door is a bunch of hungry crocodiles and alligators.”

  Just before they left the living room, Adam stooped and picked up a handful of the diamond dust that had fallen from the cracked hourglass. It sparkled in his hands like a million tiny suns. Like magic, really. He stuffed it in his pockets.

  Running, they found the door to the dungeon and hurried down the winding stairway. But when they reached the dungeon, they discovered that all the cells had burst open. The prisoners had already escaped.

  “But where did they go?” Adam wondered aloud.

  “This hallway must lead to a way out,” Watch said, nodding ahead. “Or at least it must lead to one now. I feel a draft of outside air.”

  “I would rather go under the moat than try to swim across it,” Sally said.

  “How did you get across it in the first place?” Adam asked.

  “I told the guard I was a personal friend of the witch and that I had an appointment.” Sally shrugged. “He was a troll. He was pretty stupid. He lowered the drawbridge for me.”

  The ground convulsed again. All three of them were almost thrown to the floor. Behind them the stairway collapsed in a pile of rubble. Adam helped Sally regain her balance.

  “That decides it,” Adam said. “We have to go the way the others went. It’s probably the smart thing. They know this castle better than we do.”

  “Yeah, but half of them are blind,” Watch remarked.

  Yet they had no choice and they knew it.

  They raced forward, down the dark underground hallway.

  Up ahead, they could feel fresh air.

  Yet behind them, they could hear the witch.

  Her echoing cries. Cursing them.

  17

  The passageway emptied onto the surface of the cemetery. That was both good and bad. Good because they had to get to the cemetery if they were to escape through the interdimensional portal. Bad because the remaining corpses under the ground were climbing to the surface now that the world was coming to an end. As they ran toward the tombstone, a bony hand clawed up out of the mud and grabbed Sally’s ankle.

  “Help!” she cried as the hand began to pull her under.

  Adam and Watch leaped to her aid. Unfortunately, the skeleton had lost none of its strength with the loss of its muscle tissue. He was one strong corpse. They couldn’t pry Sally free. Her right leg vanished up to her knee and she became frantic. Adam took hold of her arms and felt himself being pulled under.

  “Don’t let go of me!” she pleaded.

  “I won’t,” Adam promised. “Watch!”

  “What?”

  “Do something!” Adam said.

  “Like what?” Watch asked.

  “Get one of those sticks,” Adam ordered, referring to the dead branches lying around. “Jam it between Sally’s leg and the skeleton hand. It might confuse the thing.”

  “I’m not that skinny,” Sally said, fighting hard to stay on the surface. Slowly, steadily, Adam was losing his battle with the unseen monster. A few more seconds and Sally would be in a coffin.

  “Hurry!” Adam snapped at Watch.

  Watch found a suitably strong stick and stuck it down into the hole that had widened as more and more of Sally’s body disappeared into it. But because he was working in the dark and in the mud, Watch had trouble wedging the stick between the hand and Sally’s ankle. Finally he found his mark. Sally let out a scream. Watch was, after all, using her calf bone as leverage.

  “That hurts!” she complained.

  “Getting chewed on hurts more,” Adam said.

  “Getting boiled hurts more,” Sally said sarcastically. “I’ve heard it all before.” She slapped Watch on the back as he struggled with the subterranean creature. “Just get this thing to let go of me!”

  “It would help if you didn’t disturb my concentration,” Watch said.

  Sally slipped deeper into the hole and Adam almost lost his grip. “Adam!” she cried desperately.

  “Sally!” he cried back.

  “If you love me,” she pleaded, “stick your own leg in the hole. Maybe it will go for you instead of me.”

  “He doesn’t love you that much,” Watch muttered when Adam made no move to offer his leg. Watch continued, “Just hold on a few seconds more. I think—Yes! It’s taking the bait! It’s grabbed the stick. Pull your leg out, Sally!”

  “Gladly!” she cried in relief. The moment the creature let go of her, Adam was able to yank Sally free. He helped brush the earth off her as she stood up. She pushed away his hands.

  “The last thing I’m worried about right now is how I look,” she said. She pointed to the tombstone. “How do we get through that thing?”

  “We better figure that out quick,” Watch said, glancing over his shoulder in the direction of the toppling castle. “We have company.”

  It was true. The black knight was coming.

  And with him the witch.

  18

  They hurried toward the tombstone, backward. But all they got for their troubles were more bruises on the back of their heads. The interdimensional portal was not open.

  “Why isn’t it working?” Sally demanded.

  “I suppose you could ask the witch,” Adam muttered. “She’ll be here in a minute.”

  “The knight will be here before her,” Watch said grimly, pointing. “Look, he’s coming around that tree. We need weapons. A few strong sticks.”

  “A few hand phasers would be better,” Sally remarked.

  They quickly scavenged for sturdy branches that they could use as oversize batons. In a rough semicircle they stood guard in front of the tombstone. The knight approached warily, his silver sword drawn. Behind him, maybe two hundred yards, the witch strode rapidly through the convulsing graveyard. Her hair shone like flames. The light in her green eyes was the sickly color of death. When the knight was maybe twenty feet away, Adam ordered the others to spread out around him.

  “Well come at him from every side,” he said.

  They fanned out. The knight, although big and strong, was somewhat clumsy. Adam smacked his steel-plated knee with his wooden stick and the knight almost lost his balance. Sally was more bold. Coming at him from behind, she whacked the knight over the top of the head. He didn’t like that.

  In a surprisingly swift move, the knight pivoted.

  He swung at Sally with his silver sword.

  Watch and Adam gasped.

  Fortunately, Sally ducked.

  The knight’s stroke missed. For a moment he stumb
led. Watch took the opportunity to drop his stick and leap onto the knight’s back. His arms flew around the knight’s neck and he rode the black warrior as he would a galloping horse.

  “What are you doing?” Adam cried.

  “I saw this in a movie!” Watch called back, barely able to hold on to the knight.

  “We have to get him off there!” Sally cried, rushing to Adam’s side. “The knight will kill him.”

  No truer words were ever spoken. Even though they could whack the knight with their poles, they couldn’t rush him directly. Not unless they wanted to be cut down by his sword. Adam and Sally watched helplessly as the knight reached over his shoulder and grabbed Watch by the arm. Slowly he began to pull Watch to the front, raising his sword in the process. In a moment, Adam knew, Watch would be missing his head.

  Just then a bony hand stabbed out of the ground.

  Twirling dead fingers searched left and right. As if worked by invisible radar, the skeleton’s palm scanned the area. Struggling with Watch, the knight stepped one step too close to it.

  The hand grabbed the knight’s boot.

  The knight dropped Watch and stared down at the thing.

  Making an angry noise, the knight raised his silver sword.

  The skeleton yanked hard on the black boot.

  The knight lost his balance and fell backward, dropping his sword.

  Another skeleton arm wrapped around the knight’s neck.

  He was being pulled under.

  Adam, Sally, and Watch let out a shout of victory.

  For about two seconds.

  “Enjoying yourselves?” the witch asked, standing dangerously tall, only thirty feet away. In the struggle with the knight, they had momentarily forgotten her. The fire in her ruby ring flared and a cold green light shone in her eyes. She took a step forward and smiled wickedly. “You have been more trouble than I expected. But at least now I have the three of you together.”

  Adam reached for the knight’s sword. It was incredibly heavy. Motioning the others behind him, he pointed the sharp blade at the witch.

  “Take another step,” he warned, “and I’ll run you through.”

  “Ha!” the witch said, and took another step forward, moving between them and the tombstone. “You would be no match for me if you had a hundred men and a hundred swords behind you.” She raised her right hand, the one that held the burning ring. “This second I could melt you as if you were made of wax.”